Preparation - Mélaudia|Exp

[Johannes]

Bonjour!

This is my first attempt preparing a 'Melaudia|Exp' Speaker. This speaker is not ready yet for the concours, but is very promising so far.



Speaker: vintage Philips Alnico driver.
Cabinet: approx 50 liters, two distributed ports (a modified Stig Carlsson design)
Impedance: 8 Ohms
Sensitivity: approx. 93dB

a+, Jo

[Johannes]

Bonjour

Yesterday Thomas Noeltner - who is also in the concours with his famous Roiene - came to my place and we listened for a few minutes to my 'quick and dirty' Philips 9710 setup. I have modified the vintage Sonab cabinet a little e.g. reduced the damping. We tried both transistorized and tube amplification.

Ok - this speaker will come with us to Paris! But I am going on to find other 'hidden champions' (may be)
I will not brush up the optics - this is a experimental speaker - Mélaudia|Exp

Next device under test is a vintage Philips radio speaker from approx 1952. It is a cheap speaker but it has a lightweight membrane with high tone paper cone and a Alnico Magnet which is not very strong. It's frequency response is raising to the heights similar to the 9710.

This makes it probably suitable for my resonant cabinets. (in my fantasy)
I will report about the results later.

a+, Jo

Philips 9770 (this pair is taken from the collection of Thomas)

[Johannes]

Bonjour

Here I have another experimental speaker using the vintage Philips 9770 in a old resonant cabinet of mine.



This simple driver sounds quite well with very little colouring. Absolutely stunning regarding the age of the speaker. It was made 1952.

But I want to do better and will also try fullrange speakers used today in PA applications such as background music systems built in the ceiling of a hotel lobby e.g.

Amongst these low-cost no-name drivers one can find very good sounding examples. I will see...

Next picture is my speaker with the Philips 9710M driver in a little bit more refined stage of development.



a+, Jo

[Johannes]

Bonjour,

today I want to introduce another pair of experimental speakers for the 'concours d'enceintes large-bande'.

The drivers are 'no-name' PA speakers which I have got from an expert who works in the R&D department of a big audio distributor. His job is to measure and select speakers and new developments every day.

This 20 cm fullrange driver with it's additional high-frequency paper cone is very promising so far, as an example of new production.

I think in french simple drivers like this are called 'haut-parleurs encastrables'.

Impedance 8 Ohms, sensitivity approx. 90db/W/m, power handling 8W, f res. 70 Hz.


So may be I will bring two examples: One approx. 50 years old (Philips 9710M), another brandnew.



a+, Jo

[Johannes]

Bonjour,

after screening some recommended PA-speakers in different combinations, I quit now.

I found some interesting products, but after listening to them for a while I did not find anything special with them.

Nevertheless there are also some interesting results so far.

Last weekend seven audio-friends met at the listening room of thomas, to compare three speakers suitable for the concours.

1. The Roiene of Thomas which played really very nice and charming with high definition.
This is a fullrange speaker above the average.

2. My 'white' Philips 9710M speaker which was a good performer for Disco-Pop and heavy drums. It is a little bit agressive in the high frequency tone on the axis. I am happy with the result.


3. Beyma 8" in my Reso Cabinet. This speaker was a little 'slow' in my opinion - but the other listeners said it was not bad.

The speakers proved to be quite sensitive to the source and amplification of course.

So it is nearly impossible to predict how this particular speakers will sound together with the 'French-System'.

Better - may be

In my weblog (20. April 2008) you can find a report (In german language) with more detail and pictures.

http://www.lebong-audio.de/notizen/index.htm

a+ Jo